BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1925, Page 3

BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

[Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.] VATICAN JEWELS FOUND. (Received this day at 10.25 a.m.) ROME, July 9. The Vatican jewels (cabled on sth July) have been ' recovered. Three cf the thieves were discovered among workmen repairing the Treasury. They refused to disclose where the plunder was hidden, but a detective pretending to be a buyer, got in touch with a shoemaker who was suspected as being a receiver. The latter revealed tbo whereabouts of the haul, whereupon., the police broke in and seized the Challiees, minus the gems, which tvere discovered in a pair of shoes.

COLOUR BILL REJECTED. CAPETOWN. Julv 8

The Senate, in which the South African party bolds a majority, rejected by seventeen votes to thirteen, the Government Bill popularly known as the “ Colour Bar Bill.” which debars natives from skilled occupations. Senator J)e Wet, leader of the Opposition, declared the real motive behind the bill was once and for all to establish a white supremacy in the industrial world. The .Minister of .Mines maintained the abandonment of the colour bar meant wiping out the white civilisation. The rejection of the bill which was forced through the Assembly despite strenuous opposition will be greatly resented by the Government.

NEW PENSIONS BILL. (Received this day at 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, July 8. Tho annual conference of the National Union of Railway men unanimously condemned the Government’s new Pensions Bill, demanding a non-contrilm-tory scheme. Mr J. 11. Thomas said the effect of contributions would lie to increase unemployment. Both employers and workers were absolutely incapable of standing another penny in contributions. MR BALDWIN'S HOPES. LONDON. July 8. In the Commons questioned regarding the coal crisis, Mr Baldwin said he thought it was clear the possibilities of negotiation were not exhausted. He appealed to both sides to explore every opportunity for a settlement. He disagreed with a Labourite who stated the deadlock was complete. PAY YOUR. DEBTS FIRST. (Received this day at 11.25 a.m.) ■ LONDON. July 20. The Washington correspondent of the Times says that “debt settlement must precede any loan" will lie the American's reply to the French proposals to float a large reconstruction loan in tin United States. No surprise is fell that France should desire such n loan as it has been long foreseen that the only way of an emergence from the diifieulties under which the French Government is struggling, would be a recourse to foreign, and notably American aid, but it is emphasised that only such a. settlement of the French debt as would clearly prove the French goodwill. and such a balancing of her Budget as would demonstrate the French people’s determination to shoulder the burden, could rehabilitate the French credit sufficiently to permit an appeal to tho American investor. In other words, where France might argue that only after a. loan was granted could a debt settlement lie reached, the American' attitude would lie insistent that the loan .should not lie first.

WHEN SCIENTISTS DIFFER. (Received this day at 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, duly 8. In reference In the controvupy concerning Professor Keith's challenge to Professor Dart’s theorv of the taung’s skull. Mr Elliott Smith, who arranged the exhibits tit the South African pavilion, where the casts of the skull, as well as the lira ins. were displayed alongside a. chimpanzee’s head, said in an interview that he disagreed with Professor Keith. “The exhibit impressively confirms,” said Smith, “the accuracy of Dart’s general conclusion that the skull is the most wonderful fossil yet discovered. Tt reveals for the first time a form of head and brain extant in man. like an ape. anil showing a. more definite sense of the human affiinitics than any previously found. Every competent scientist in Britain, who examined the evidence was convinced that Dart had made good his claims as to the geographical factor that Dart emphasises, namely, that the lining ape had wandered (me hundred miles from the forest belt is the surest proof of its acquired ability to live independently of trees, thereby differing profoundly from the chimpanzee and gorilla which are entirely dependent on forests. Professor Keith completely ignores this consideration.”

NATIONALITY LAW. LONDON, July 8.

In the Commons Sir W. Depreoe suggested the British Nationality Act should he amended so a British woman did not lose her British status by marriage, until hv the law of her husband’s country, she acquired His nationality.

■ Locker l.ampson, Under Secretary ol Home Affairs, replied that Government would further consider the matter when the opinions of the Dominions were received. I bus far three Dominions had replied.

COAL CRISIS.

LjONDOX, July 7

There is a general impression that Mr Baldwin has made himself acquainted with the viewpoint of both parties in the coal crisis. It is not improbable that the respective leaders will r,e invited to confer at Downing Street within a week if a private solution is not reached.

Mr Smith (Miners' President) addressing the International Miners’ Federation at London, said that the position of the coal industry in Britain was unprecedented, and it needed, the gravest consideration. It was rcpoitecl that through the German undercutting the French miners were now Iveing asked to agree to longer hours and to a 2() per cent, reduction in wages. Time was a similar crisis in Belgium.

It is significant that as the result of the conference between the owners and the miners, the men at the Netherton Colliery in Northumberland, have accepted a, tonnage reduction, which is equivalent to a cut in wages of 20 per cent.